Although we have winter season here in Uruguay Anna liked to celebrate her birthday with a light summer lunch menu, which I gladly fulfilled.

We prepared 3 courses in which the starter comprised already 3 different ones. All together it was good fun, very delicious and we had a nice party. I decided to go for seafood and changed the recipes to all of ours and our guests delights. Some pics are from earlier occasions.

First drink.

         As a welcome drink we had a German sparkling wine „Soehnlein Brilliant Rose“. What a nice color in the glass (see pic). Bought here in Uruguay for same price as in Germany – not to shabby ayhh !

The Starter.

1. Tuna Mousse.
The tuna mousse is a typical Italian appetizer, which can be offered very differently. Normally with ricotta. Classic as a mousse, but also as a finger food. You can also use it for Crostini and Tramezzini. Because of the lemon, it tastes nice and fresh.

  Tuna mousse, enriched with pickles and sun-dried tomatoes. No ricotta because of one person with lactose intolerance.

2. Shrimp Salad.
The classic French one with a self made dressing of yogurt, ketchup, lemon juice, chilli powder, dill and a good shot of Cognac. All on a bed of greens.

   Shrimps or Crevetten in German, with slices of button mushrooms and the delicious Cognac dressing.

3. Salmon Tartar.
My modification of an classic Latin American dish – salmon ceviche. Made with ice cold salmon, boiled egg, red onion, lemon juice, apple, chives and spices. A very delightful starter which we use in summer time often as a main course.

  Very tasty salmon tartar.

Second Drink.

            This wine tasted and bought at the Deicas-Juanico winery. Uruguayan Preludio from the Deicas Family. A very delicious semi dry white wine. Golden color (see pic) and a strong earthy, fruity taste. It’s music on your pallet. Notice the music-note frame on the label. This 14,5% alcohol strong wine accompanied perfect the well herbed and spiced seafood dishes.

The Main.

As main course we had a butter pan fried salmon filet with homemade Swiss Roesti, green leaf-salad and two different dressings. A Greek tzatziki-dill dressing and a German spicy horseradish-cream dressing.

Our salmon filet and the Roesti, see above. I do not like the salmon served, like in many restaurants under-cooked and still waxy inside. They might think its modern cuisine. Mine should be nicely browned outside and still soft and juicy, but well cooked, inside. I accomplish this by myself with sealing the salmon on all sides, see pic down here.

   Above right, similar occasion a few month earlier.   Salmon in „honey and Bavarian mustard“ sauce on Roesti.

Third Drink.

Serving a digestive drink after a filling meal I used an ultra rare German specialty, a „Lutheraner“. This is a herbal liqueur made with an unchanged recipe (since 1529) after the suggestion of Martin Luther, Wittenberg. It was, as history says, his favorite drink.

                  Left: The liqueur „a la Luther“ – Lutheraner.  Right: The famous reformer Martin Luther, painted 1529 by Lucas Cranach the elder.

Fourth Drink.

Before dessert was coming out we served a classic German dessert wine. Years ago brought with me from Germany, a „Franken Riesling Auslese“ from Wuerzburg. Just 9% of alcohol, but so light and fruity, strong natural sweetness on the palate. A dream to drink.

           
Wuerzburger Stein, Buergerspital (since 1316) special location below the castle of Wuerzburg.

The Dessert.

Finally we had an „one ingredient“ banana ice cream with lychees and strawberries, topped with whipped cream and poppy seeds. No cream for the lactose person of course.

Banana ice made last summer. Frozen banana into a blender, stir roughly, mix a bit coffee powder in, blend til smooth and enjoy. Perfect ice cream done in minutes.

            Its absolute delicious. Just pep it up to your satisfaction. The right pic shows my banana ice with strawberries. The nice color of the ice you’ll receive with mixing a few strawberries into the banana ice (step 3 above).

This short post about a birthday lunch contains a lot of different recipes. If you are interested in one, just send me a request.  Enjoy !!